From this week’s readings, I found out that the U.S. Congress is a self-regulating body which makes federal laws that govern the country. Part of its self-regulation is an Ethics Committee in each House of Congress which enforces the rules of the Congress governing the personal behavior of its members. One important point I learned about Congress is that it is made up of the Senate, which is the Upper House of Congress, and the House of Representatives, which is the Lower House. Additionally, I learned about the Congressional leadership that is comprised of the speaker of the House of Representatives, who is the presiding officer, and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, who presides over the Senate when the vice president is absent. Also, each House has a Majority Leader and a Minority Leader. The majority leader assist leadership in managing party’s legislative program and also has the same roles as those of the majority leader of the House, which responsibilities consist of scheduling legislation for floor consideration and planning the daily, weekly, and annual legislative agendas. The minority leader responsibilities consist in serving as the counterpart to the Speaker of the House. The minority leader has the same roles as those of the minority leader of the house. They converses for the minority party’s policies and protects its rights. The political party that has the majority of members in each House elects a Majority Whip for its House, and the political party that has the minority of members in each House elects a Minority Whip. Their job is to get members of their party in their House to vote a certain way together. I also learned more about the state and the federal judiciary. For example, I found out that the judicial branch of the U.S. government was established by Article III of the Constitution and it is led by the Supreme Court of the United States. Notably, the Congress has the power of establishing law courts and all the members of the federal judicial branch are normally nominated by the President and must be confirmed by the Senate in order to serve.

In addition to the above-mentioned three topics, the following information was also important, and I believe it will help me in my research. To begin with, I learned more about the interaction between state and local government. Ideally, the two governments work together to provide good services to the people. For instance, they build roads together and cooperate on other common interests of the people.

The week’s readings also showed me that I need to know more about power sharing. This mostly happens in a democratic kind of government and it means the distribution of power among the organs of the government. Power sharing is very crucial in achieving the stability of political order. In this kind of governance, power can be shared even at distinct levels like the federal, state as well as local. The Ninth and the Tenth Amendments have clearly defined power sharing between the local and the state government. The amendments define the establishment and the division of power between the local and the state government (Ritchie, 2016). Additionally, the amendments protect the powers from both entities notably, the Tenth Amendment was used to define the federal taxing power, the federal regulations and the federal police power.

References

Cushman, C. B. (2014). An Introduction to the U.S. Congress. London, England: Routledge.

Ritchie, D. A. (2016). The U.S. Congress: A Very Short Introduction. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.